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Doberman Puppies Wales

You will find adverts to your left but PLEASE check out our home page before buying doberman puppies.

Here are a few random questions with answers generally available on the internet. I hope it gives you food for thought but please do as much research as you possibly can before you go looking for your doberman puppy and make an impulse buy.

Trust me, you will fall in love with all doberman puppies you visit but puppies, doberman or not, should never be bought on impulse.

Doberman Puppies Wales Wales What are my responsibilities as a new Doberman puppy owner?

Do take your puppy to puppy playschool and obedience training classes and do your homework for these classes. Behaviors that are cute in a 15 pound puppy can be dangerous in a 75 pound doberman. Socialize your puppy with people (especially children) and other dogs frequently (after your puppy has completed its immunization). Your doberman puppy may go through a period known as “adolescent shyness” when it reaches 4-5 months of age. This period can last until the puppy is 12-18 months old. Socializing your puppy from an early age will help minimize this shyness. Expose your doberman puppy to a variety of experiences, but do so gently. You don’t want to traumatize your puppy. Be careful of heavy physical exertion directly before and after eating, especially if your Doberman is a “gulper”. Dobermans puppies can suffer from bloat. If your dog’s abdomen becomes distended and rigid and it can not seem to belch or pass gas, gastric torsion may be the problem. This is an urgent health concern and puppies, doberman and other breeds, should immediately attend the vets.

Are they easy to train?

Yes, very, IF you know what you are doing. The Doberman is very intelligent and eager to please. They will work hard for positive reinforcement. They are not generally stubborn or hard-headed. They pick up new exercises very quickly. Due to their high intelligence level, the biggest challenge is to keep them focused, and not let them get away with ‘inventing’ variations to the exercise being taught. Because of the breed’s extreme sensitivity to people the trainer must always be watchful of their own body language and reactions to issues that come up during a training exercise. As a general rule, a calm demeanour providing quick and clear reward for desired behaviour, while ignoring or, if necessary, simple verbal correction for undesired behaviour, will net you an enthusiastic and talented working partner.

Doberman Puppies Wales Doberman Puppies Wales

What do they eat and about how much?

Because of their high energy level they should be fed a high quality food containing a good balance of protein and fat and with essential fatty acids. Most normally active Dobermans will require a higher level of fat and protein than many other breeds throughout their lives. Adults will eat from 2-5 cups of food a day depending on the individual dogs metabolism and how much activity they are getting. Good quality, balanced food will help to keep the coat healthy and reduce shedding.

Protection sport training is probably the most misunderstood training in existence. Many people think that sport protection training makes dobermans vicious and aggressive towards people. The dogs are not taught to bite the person, but to bite the fabric. In the basic training the dog or puppy is taught to play with a burlap sack, sort of a tug of war. The doberman (or puppy) is then graduated to seizing a tube of burlap/fabric and stuffing. Then the dog is graduated to a leg sleeve and then to a decoy suit or sleeve. If the decoy, the man in the suit, were to take off the suit and shake it around, the dog will grab the suit and start a tug of war, in the same manner as he/she did with the burlap sack. If the decoy were to run away holding the suit, dangling from an out stretched hand, exposing the rest of the man to the dog, the dog would grasp the suit and pay no attention to the man. The doberman is taught to grab the fabric. The decoy is friendly towards the dog and many times, in training, the dog will climb up in the decoy’s lap and lick his face, immediately after the protection session is over. Puppies, dobermans seem to be particularly keen to start young, can start in a very small way from an early age but of course a puppy needs to mature into adult before progressing.